11-17-08
Well, my error is all over, I finally got the
firearm season for deer opened. It was my error – not a typo – and I will
be more careful in using things I know in the future.
I could let everyone think it was a typographical
error in my column of last week that caused the goof up. But it was my
thinking . . . not a typo.
At any rate, deer hunters probably knew the season
opened last Saturday, November 15 instead of November 17, as I, in
error, reported.
When I wrote that November 17 was opening day
of the gun season, I doubted my statement even though I had the opening/closing
dates in black and orange in the DNR’s Hunting guide before my eyes. The
problem came because I looked at the 2007-2008 hunting guide. I should
have been looking at the 2008-2009 guide. It is correct.
For many years, the firearm deer season has opened,
by law on the first Saturday after Veterans’ Day. But I thought it might
have been changed for some reason. It hadn’t.
With that in the archives, first reports from
check stations indicate the Saturday/Sunday hunting was a little slower
than usual, but Chad Stewart, assistant deer biologist, believes the weather
on Saturday may have caused a lack of hunters.
As you will recall, Saturday was rainy and cold;
Sunday was cold with a snowdrop or two. These days are the greatest harvest
days of the season.
Chad says the weather may have kept some hunters
at home . . . baking their shins.
While no numbers were available for either archery
or gun hunting, Stewart said the bow benders appeared to be doing their
job. This hunting appears to be up a bit. Both firearm and the first bow
season will end November 30, I am told. That “I am told” is a way of hedging
my information. I am still gun shy.
BIOLOGIST RETIRES
– Dr. Jim Mitchell, the biologist, who for more than 15 years rode herd
on our deer herd, has retired . . . probably to dancing of jigs by some
armchair biologists who have unsuccessfully tried over the years to ramrod
their weak-sister theories on deer management through the DNR.
Real deer hunters can hope that we will get the
same kind of deer management in the future.
An avid squirrel hunter, Jim may have hung his
season-opener deer by now, and is chewing the back leg of a gray squirrel
at this moment.
FISHING ARTIFICIALS
– In view of the fact that many waters are partially covered with floating
dry leaves, we are asked, how this it is managed.
Frankly, this is not my favorite kind of fishing,
but when I have to fish artificial lures in these conditions, I opt for
a spoon type lure that delivers its wobbly, best action on a jig-type retrieve.
I try to plant the lure in a patch of open water, and let it sink a few
feet. On the retrieve, I use a slow winding of the reel handle while steering
my line around the leaves on the surface.
I do not catch as many bass in this manner, but
then the dark color of the water may also be a factor, and time is the
only cure for this.
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